


And So It Continues

by CatKing_Catkin



Series: Cheer Up The Skeleton Week [4]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Bonding, Caretaking, Family Feels, Family Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Frisk Needs A Hug, Gen, Good Brother Sans, Happy Sans, No More Resets (Undertale), Nonbinary Frisk, Post-Undertale Pacifist Route, Sans Remembers Resets, Undertale Monsters on the Surface
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-16
Updated: 2016-12-16
Packaged: 2018-09-09 01:55:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,264
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8871220
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CatKing_Catkin/pseuds/CatKing_Catkin
Summary: Written for the "Cheer Up The Skeleton" week on tumblr, Day 4 - prompt "family".Life on the surface is going well for monsterkind. Sans in particular is surprised to find how much he's enjoying actually having a life again. So it surprises him when, one day, Frisk is the one expressing doubts about how things are going. All he can do is try to put their mind at ease, the way they have for him.





	

Frisk had always been important.

At first, that hadn’t necessarily been a good thing. Terrifying and dangerous things could be important, just because of the influence they had over your lives. Plagues and natural disasters were important, inescapable and impossible to ignore. Such had been the case with the anomaly, long before Sans had had a face to put to it. They had been a storm to weather, not a person.

Now he had a face. Now they weren’t just a person – they were _Frisk_ , and they were important.

It had started off just as a matter of trying to keep them happy, so they kept everyone on the surface. But it had turned into something more, something fierce and deep that he’d only ever felt for Papyrus before.

He and Papyrus had them over at least every other weekend for movie nights. Sans kept an eye on them at school. Whenever they forgot their lunch, he made sure a replacement turned up. Whenever any other punk kids tried to give them hell for having a teacher and a monster for a mother, Sans very politely made sure to explain the error of their ways, and if they didn’t get the hint he made sure to make their lives harder in innumerable small but noticeable ways that were nevertheless impossible to pin on him. He could still find his shortcuts here on the surface, after all, and he didn’t just use them to make sure his work got done in plenty of time to slack off for the rest of the day.

If Toriel was busy grading papers at the end of the day, she trusted him to walk Frisk home. Sans wasn’t a fan of walking in general, but Frisk was, and so he made an exception. They were always quiet affairs. What was there to say? Okay, there was probably actually plenty to say. They could have told one another about their day, that sort of thing. But really, Sans’ days were always similar, and Frisk probably knew that he kept half an eye on them, at least enough to know what their day was generally like. So there was never much that was _new_ to say.

Today, however, there was something on their mind. He could tell. He’d tried to coax it out with some candy he’d been planning on buying from the corner store anyway. He’d just bought a little extra, with the kid in tow and bribery due. It hadn’t worked at first, but they’d seemed to appreciate the candy. So it was hardly a loss

Eventually, however, despite his longstanding policy of never taking a direct stand in things, Sans decided to see if he could nudge matters along. The air between them was thick and tense enough to cut with a knife otherwise. “everything okay, kid?”

They started a little, clearly having been pulled from their own thoughts. When they moved, it was to pull their coat more tightly around themselves and then shove their hands deep in the coat pockets. An unconscious mimicry of him. Or maybe he was mimicking them. “Yeah.”

“school go okay?”

“Sure.”

Hell with it. Forthrightness was a skill he was still cultivating and would probably never have much of. Sans tried it anyway. “…somethin’ on your mind?”

He thought he saw their frown deepen, but it looked thoughtful rather than annoyed. And in just the split second before he gave up and turned his gaze back to the road beneath their feet instead, their thoughts led them to speaking. They sounded hesitant. In turn, he tried to sound calm and approachable. He tried to sound like an adult, in fact, which wasn’t an easy feat. Toriel was pretty much his only role model there.

“Sans?”

“yeah, kid?”

“You, um…you know I love you a lot, right?”

Sans stopped dead. He could feel the world spinning, tilting, turning. One wrong move, one misspoken word, and it would tilt all the way over and never be right again.

He took a very deep breath, more for the sake of feeling air moving through his skull than because he actually needed it. Then he reached out and gently patted Frisk on the head.

“i know, kid. i know.”

They ducked their head a little. He pulled his hand away, point made, and stuck it deep and safe in his pocket instead.

“So…you know that you don’t _have_ to do all the nice things you do for me, right? You don’t have to be nice to me…just so I won’t reset. I love all of you. I’m not going to do that to you anyway. So…you don’t have to worry.”

“i’m not worried, frisk.” And it was only when he said it that Sans realized the full extent of the truth. He _wasn’t_ worried, not anymore. He wasn’t sure he could remember just when he’d stopped worrying. And maybe, just maybe, it was better that way.

He grinned to himself and, distance be damned, slung an arm around their shoulders, companionable as anything. They let out a startled little squeak, stumbling for a second, but he made sure they didn’t fall. And indeed, after a beat, they readjusted their pace to walk nearer to his side instead.

“i know you wouldn’t do that. and…that’s exactly why i want to do what I do for you. does that make sense? i mean…” Now it was Sans’ turn to avert his gaze, and he scratched anxiously at his skull with the hand that wasn’t holding Frisk in a mobile half-hug. “…if it doesn’t bug you, or anything. if you actually want an old bag of bones like me keeping an eyesocket out for ya. ah…does it?”

He felt their arms close tight around his ribcage, felt their soul close and bright. Once upon a time, that would have sent Sans recoiling away, half-recalled memories of golden hallways and blood flashing through his mind. Now, however, his soul felt only calm, and even warm at the reciprocated emotions. That was always the most important thing for monsters, reciprocation.

With that in mind, he stopped right there on the sidewalk, the world around them lit red and gold by the setting sun, and he hugged them properly back.

“Doesn’t bug me,” Frisk muttered resolutely, their face turned against his ribcage. “S’great. Really great. It’s like…having an uncle. Or…” And now they were mumbling something so faintly that even Sans could barely hear them. But he just barely managed to make out the word “brother”. And it felt like all the air had been squeezed out of his skull, but something else was rushing in to take its place. Something _good_ , something…warm and buttery and gold. Like the good kind of soda that Grillby kept behind the bar.

He took a chance, like a first step over thin ice after spending so long standing frozen in the middle of the lake. “sure, kid.” He took another, and another. Maybe the ice would break beneath his feet. Or maybe he’d finally find the shore again. “i’ll be your brother. if you want. always room for one more, right? well, two more, with paps and me. but i figure that goes without saying.”

They hugged him tighter, and made a little sound that might have been a giggle or a sob. Either way, it vibrated just a little through his ribcage. “…right.”

“wanna know a secret, kid?”

“Yeah.”

“i love you a lot, too.” How could he, as a brother, feel any other way?


End file.
